6 Safe Steps To Open A Wax Sealed Beer Bottle
We're in the winter months now, and we're coming up to the festive season. So you may start to see Imperial stouts and special beers in bottles that are coated in wax over the top of the crown cap. I've seen lots of posts on Facebook groups and beer forums, where people have had trouble getting into this type of bottle and some very dangerous practices using serrated blades and trying to melt it off. When you're trying to get into a wax sealed beer bottle, it can be quite difficult. So I found out the best way to open a wax sealed beer bottle safely. I'm going to share that with you today. And I'm also going to talk about why brewers seal their beers with wax.
What beer comes in a wax sealed beer bottle?
On beer bottles (usually Imperial Stout or barley wines) you will see these interesting and kind of cool looking wax seals. They can be in lots of different colours - some match the beer label art, others are glow in the dark, some are quite neatly dipped at the top and others have long artistic-looking drips. You can get quite thick wax on your wax sealed beer bottles and you can even get gold and silver. Sometimes the brewers will stamp their logo into the top like a seal. I've even seen wax sealed cans.
Why do brewers have wax sealed beer bottles?
Why do brewers do this? Usually, a beer that is waxed is going to be something with a higher ABV or possibly a Belgian beer - the type of beers that you are going to want to store and age. They need to be of a higher ABV, usually a maltier beer so that they can develop interesting flavours over time, or possibly lambics or wild beers that also develop different flavours over time. A Wax seal will be used on a beer that can be aged for 5, 10 or 20 plus years.
Usually, beers to be aged are sealed with a crown cap if not a cage and cork. Inside your usual crown cap, there is a rubber seal that keeps the air out. In some beers that are to be aged and last longer, they'll have an additional plastic seal in the middle that will help to keep more air out. However, over time the metal of the crown cap can be subjected to moisture and can start to rust. By adding a wax seal, the brewer is stopping that moisture and air from getting to the metal of the crown cap and therefore it can last longer. Now, this is really only useful for beers that are going to be aged for five years plus, a lot of beers you're going to find with a wax seal will have a shorter best before date than that on them. So really, it's added to make it look cool.
How NOT to open a wax sealed beer bottle
But a wax seal does make it difficult for us beer drinkers be able to get into these beers. So how do we get into these lovely beers when you're trying to get into a wax sealed beer? Please don't use a serrated knife. This can be quite dangerous and you could cut yourself. Also please don't try to melt the wax because the heat might upset the beer in the bottle.
The safest way to open a wax sealed beer bottle
To get into a wax sealed bottle, you're going to need a blunt butter knife. This is going to keep you nice and safe because you're not going to be able to accidentally cut yourself. You also need a bottle opener. I like the ones that have the longer handle and have got quite a sharp blade in the middle. This is going to give you good leverage to break the wax on the top of the bottle. If the wax is quite light around the crown cap, you might be able to get the sharp part of your bottle opener up underneath the crown cap and just wrench it off. But a more simple way is the technique that I use:
Take your butter knife, go underneath the crown cap as close as you can, and press into the wax to cut into it.
You're then going to cut a crescent from one end of your cut to the other – a bit like a smiley face. This will create a notch.
Peel out the crescent of wax with the end of the knife. This gives you access to the crown cap.
Get your bottle open underneath the crown cap in the clear notch.
If you struggle to get your bottle opener underneath the crown cap you can cut a little bit more wax out to be able to lever it off. Sometimes you might also need to make a little bit of a divot in the top of the wax on top of the crown cap so that you can really get a good purchase with your bottle opener.
Once your bottle opener is under the crown cap you can leaver the cap off.
You can leave the cap slightly attached so it looks cool in your beer photos! So that's the safest way of opening your wax sealed beer bottle.
Let me know if you have got any wax sealed beer bottles that you are saving for a special occasion. Or have you ever had a wax sealed can and how did you open that? Head on over to Instagram and let me know here.
